Delaware Valley School District will lose federal money from sequester

Saturday

Feb 23, 2013 at 12:01 AM

Delaware Valley School District and even the water flow in the Delaware River could feel the far-reaching effects of a possible March 1 federal government slowdown.

BETH BRELJE

Delaware Valley School District and even the water flow in the Delaware River could feel the far-reaching effects of a possible March 1 federal government slowdown.

Here's how: The federal government in 1962 seized land to build the Tocks Island Dam and create a 37-mile-long lake on the Delaware River, from Tocks Island to Port Jervis, N.Y.

Hundreds of people and businesses were displaced through eminent domain. The project didn't happen, and today the land is the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area.

Those displaced landowners were taxpayers who contributed to Delaware Valley and East Stroudsburg school districts. Without them, the district says there is an additional burden on taxpayers.

If the federal land, assessed at $30 million, had stayed in private ownership, the districts would have reaped the benefit of those taxes.

Each year Delaware Valley requests a federal impact fee, which offsets some of the lost revenue. The annual fee from the feds is roughly $750,000, Business Administrator Bill Hessling said.

The Department of Education would cut the funding of federal impact fees by 9 percent under sequestration, Hessling said. The district has written lawmakers asking for special consideration to prevent the loss of funding, he said.

Other federal agencies are also preparing for deep budget cuts.

This month Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar wrote to the Senate Appropriations Committee listing some of the ways the Department of the Interior would handle the sequester.

The United States Geological Survey may have to discontinue operation of 350 to 375 stream gauges used throughout the country to predict and address drought and flood conditions by monitoring water availability, Salazar's letter said.

It is unknown which river gauges would be affected, but cuts could include the gauges on the Delaware River. The USGS has an office in Milford, and the river is constantly monitored.

Reliable funding of the stream gauge network is necessary in order to obtain the information needed to make good decisions about managing of shared water resources, according to Delaware River Basin Commission's website.

Nature does not supply water at a constant or predictable rate. In order to properly manage water, it must be measured. Gauges are indispensable as tools for flood forecasting and warning along rivers and streams, the commission says.

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